Participants

Karolina Follis³; Aleksandra Lewicki¹; Kamila Fialkowska⁴; Bolaji Balogun⁶; Kasia Narkowicz⁵; Roch Dunin-Wasowicz²;  ¹ University of Sussex, UK;  ² UCL (University College London), UK;  ³ Lancaster University, UK;  ⁴ Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw, Poland;  ⁵ Middlesex University, UK;  ⁶ SOAS, University of London, UK

Discussion

In the first quarter of the 21st century, Eastern Europe has become accustomed to receiving growing numbers of immigrants and refugees. Migration is an increasingly contested topic in domestic politics in the region and a source of contention between member states at the European Union level. Politicians prescribe increasingly heavy-handed border control measures aimed at restricting irregular border crossings, often at the cost of undermining international legal commitments, and alienating international partners and domestic civil society. Governments create de facto “hostile environments” for certain categories of people on the move, even if they do not make it official policy. But while anti-immigrant discourse is hostile, movements of solidarity with newcomers are also robust. In this context, we ask how do the dynamics of hostility and hospitality work on the ground in a region where the histories of migration, ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity and racial imaginaries are distinctly different than in Western societies of the EU and the Global North. Eastern Europe has no postcolonial ties with countries of the Global South, and no twentieth century experience of labour immigration or large-scale reception of refugees. There is instead a post-World War 2 legacy of what Redlich called “dismembered multiethnicity” (2002), the memory of Soviet domination, and the culturally transmitted record of decades of westward emigration coupled with the experience of what Lewicki calls “ambiguous racialisation” (2023) in destination countries. With this in mind, the proposed Roundtable explores local configurations of hostile and hospitable environments, situated in the distinctive regional context. We will discuss primarily the case of Poland, where recent years have seen a growing tension between the repressive and punitive policing of the Belarussian border, at the same time as people fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine were embraced and accommodated. We will bring comparative perspectives however, reflecting on regional and transregional convergences in the policies, practices and affects of migrant and refugee reception and rejection. Bringing together critical scholars of borders, race, and migration politics, the Roundtable will ask how Eastern Europeans draw on historical experiences and national mythologies to justify their responses to the arrivals of foreigners on their borders and in their neighbourhoods. Nb. The proposed roundtable is second in a series initiated the ASEEES Convention in Boston in November 2024. A collaborative publication is envisaged combining insights from both Roundtables.